{"id":477661,"date":"2026-06-01T15:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T15:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/477661\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T15:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T15:40:09","slug":"two-men-and-two-teenage-boys-remanded-on-bail-after-co-laois-cemetery-violence-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/477661\/","title":{"rendered":"Two men and two teenage boys remanded on bail after Co Laois cemetery violence \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two men and two 17-year-old boys were remanded on continuing bail at a special sitting of Portlaoise District Court following a violent incident at an annual cemetery Mass in Co Laois<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The court heard that Gerard McInerney (38) of Kilcruttin Halting Site, Tullamore, Co Offaly, was charged with an offence under the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act.<\/p>\n

Gda Sgt Kevin O\u2019Sullivan gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution of McInerney on May 31st, to which the accused made no reply.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan agreed with defence solicitor Aengus McCarthy that conditions of bail would be set. However, he said he had \u201cconcerns\u201d with an application for free legal aid as the accused had \u20ac2,915 in cash and three Permanent TSB bank cards on his person when arrested and the case formed part of a \u201ccomplex investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n

McCarthy said his client was living in a caravan, had just sold a car, was about to purchase another and that was the reason he had cash in his possession.<\/p>\n

Judge Andrew Cody reserved judgment on granting free legal aid, with a decision to be made on July 20th next as McInerney was remanded on continuing bail with conditions attached.<\/p>\n

The judge also requested that two months of bank statements backdated from June 1st from the accused\u2019s three accounts be presented to the court when he reappears.<\/p>\n

In the case of the second defendant, a 17-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons, Gda Sgt Mark Shine gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution at 5.40pm on May 31st at Portlaoise Garda station under the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act. The accused made no reply when charged. He was accompanied in court by his father.<\/p>\n

Shine said there was no objection to bail and that certain conditions had been set, which included a curfew obliging the accused to stay indoors between 10pm and 6am.<\/p>\n

McCarthy informed the judge that the accused had never been before the court. The accused was remanded on continuing bail to reappear on July 20th next.<\/p>\n

The third defendant, also a boy aged 17 who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested for affray under the Criminal Justice Act. O\u2019Sullivan gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution on May 31st, to which no reply was made by the accused.<\/p>\n

Defence counsel David Nugent asked the court to delay his reappearance to July 23rd next so that there would not be \u201cundue pressure\u201d on Garda resources. <\/p>\n

The judge agreed, free legal aid was granted and the accused was remanded on continuing bail to July 23rd.<\/p>\n

Daniel McInerney (31), with a UK address, appeared before the same court sitting charged with affray under the Criminal Justice Act. O\u2019Sullivan again gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution at 6.40pm on May 31st at Portlaoise Garda station.<\/p>\n

He informed the court that because the accused lived outside the jurisdiction, a cash lodgement of \u20ac3,000 was legally required.<\/p>\n

In an outline to the court, O\u2019Sullivan said he had \u201cconcerns\u201d over his bail application.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The accused] flew over from the UK to attend the 1pm cemetery Mass in St Peter and Paul\u2019s cemetery. There was a large gathering of the Travelling community and members of the public which totalled 3,000,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He noted that \u201ctensions were high\u201d, there was \u201cquite an aggressive scene\u201d and \u201ca large altercation was [allegedly] instigated\u201d by Daniel McInerney. The accused was removed from the scene but then a \u201clarge row spilt over into the cemetery\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion he [the accused] was brought over [to Ireland] for a reason, for the purpose of starting a row,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Daniel McInerney was also found to have three Visa debit cards from Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Bank and Lloyds Bank in his possession when arrested.<\/p>\n

McCarthy said his client had been \u201cfrank\u201d with the court about flying over from the UK to Portlaoise on Saturday last to attend the Mass.<\/p>\n

The judge agreed to the accused remaining on continuing bail with conditions including that he stay out of Portlaoise until his next court date of July 20th and that he have no contact with three individuals.<\/p>\n

However, he reserved granting free legal aid and ordered bank statements to be produced when he reappears.<\/p>\n

There was a large Garda presence both inside and outside the court while the four cases were being heard.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, members of the Garda Public Order Unit were called in to disperse crowds at the Mass in St Peter and Paul\u2019s Cemetery in Portlaoise.<\/p>\n

The incident, in which it is understood a number of weapons were brandished, resulted in two people, a man in his 20s and a boy, being treated in hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n

Garda investigations are continuing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two men and two 17-year-old boys were remanded on continuing bail at a special sitting of Portlaoise District…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5721,61,60,8285,43],"class_list":["post-477661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-district-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-laois","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}